I am the Vine

A sermon preached by Father Dwight D. Duncan, ssc, Rector, St Matthias, Dallas, Texas
9 May 1999 - The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Scripture: John 15:1-8, Year A


I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:1-2

So says Jesus. Anybody ready to stand up and cheer? NO? Then you got the point! Any way you cut this word is not pleasant. CUT: that IS the point. If we be fruitless branches, we shall be cut away. But even if we be fruitful branches, we shall be cut ... not away, but upon. It's called pruning. You carve upon a living thing to improve its shape, its growth, its productivity. OUCH!

Pruning is required by the fact that nothing remains static. Everything is either growing and developing, or decaying. And things finally decayed go to the incinerator. So part of Jesus' word is warning to us: grow or die.

But the other part of Jesus' word, "... every branch [of mine] that does bear fruit [my Father] prunes, is encouragement and pastoral care:

Encouragement - Jesus is reminding us what wondrous creatures we are. While you and I are satisfied to become merely good people, people producing some fruit in our lives, God is not. He is working to restore us to our dignity: sons and daughters, lavishly laden with the fruits of holiness and righteousness, manifesting our magnificence as the creature made in his image and likeness.

Pastoral Care - By letting us know that his Father will do whatever is necessary to make us what we truly are, Jesus prepares us for what we will experience in this life as adversity.

So, where does God's pruning of us occur? Hear the word of another Jesus, my younger son, our Lord's namesake. His responses to my question, "How is your week going, Joshua?" can be highly descriptive. A very taxing, anxious one is "A week from hell, Papa." Well, I've had a bunch of those. I bet you have too!

What does Joshua have in mind when he responds to my question? He has in mind the circumstances of his life. The circumstances of our lives: those things which happen to us, those things we cause to happen. These are the how and the what through which God's pruning of us occurs.

Since this is so, we need to know how best to respond to circumstances, because the way in which we deal with them will determine how we grow through them. So, what do we make of the circumstances of our lives?

Well, there are two kinds of circumstances, aren't there? Good...Bad. We call a circumstance good if we get what we want OR don't have to take what we do not want. We call a circumstance bad if we don't get what we want OR have to take what we do not want. Realize this: since we're the ones making these designations, what they truly are may be something else.

Howsoever that may be, what's the healthy way to deal with circumstances we experience as good? Simply be grateful for them. AND - this is very important - use them for the good of others. You don't deserve good fortune, remember. If God, who is holiness itself, gave each of us our due, it would be a lot hotter here in Dallas than it is! No, God gives or allows us good fortune not for our pleasure alone, but for the service of others. In this way, he spreads abroad his eternal charity. So be a good steward of his gifts: share them with others.

What about adversity, bad circumstances, the stuff we don't like? There are two aspects to a healthy response to these:

Aspect Number One - Accept the difficult circumstances and stop fighting against them. Instead work with them and offer God your acceptance of them, either as an act of thanksgiving for his blessings OR as a penance for your sins.

Look at it this way: Many of us have to deal with the adversity of mowing our lawns when it is 100 or more in the shade. If God lived next door and I wanted to show him my gratitude for his blessings to me, I might mow his lawn. But God doesn't have a lawn to mow . I do and actually it is God's lawn anyway. So I can mow my lawn for God, in thanksgiving. OR

I can mow it as a penance for my sins. You and I sin a lot and don't get punished for most of it. So you can offer whatever your current misery is as an act of penance for all those things God has let slip by.

Embracing difficult circumstances, either as acts of thanksgiving or as acts of penance, makes them more than adversities to be endured. It makes them loving sacrifices we can offer to the Father who loves us. Not only is this an offering worthy of him, but it helps us live well with and through the difficulties.

Aspect Number Two of dealing healthily with difficult circumstances is this: Adversity, received in the ways I have counseled, builds character. How can I grow in patience unless someone tries me? How can I grow in generosity unless I am faced with another's need for something I wish to keep for myself? How can I grow in trusting God unless I must give up demanding that my life fit my dream for how it is to be?

Circumstances which we see as adversities, accepted as I have counseled, help us grow stronger, holier. St Paul reminded some early Christian wimps: "...we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character ..." Romans 5:3-4a No one has ever built strong muscles, you know, by lifting marshmallows.

I am told of an English university student who went on a walking tour in the Scottish highlands, from whence my family came. Passing a cottage way up the side of a rocky hill, he found an old weather-beaten man and small boy hoeing away at a parcel of land which looked like nothing but pure rock.

Amazed that anyone would try to cultivate such unpromising land, the student said to the old man, "Pardon me, sir. But would you mind telling me what you could raise on land like this?" The old man straightened, spat, and replied, "Men." That is what adversity can do for you and me. That is what God intends it to do: make us his men, his women.

Over the years many people have asked me what I want for my sons. Yes, I would prefer for them good health, financial security, fulfilling vocations, and the world's admiration. But on the other hand, I don't want them to be softies, with flabby character, doing more damage to this world than good. I want them to become God's men, men like Jesus.

So every morning I hand my boys over to God, saying: "Father, send or allow Jeremy and Joshua whatever will bring them to you and make them the men you want them to be." I know the risk of surrendering them to God. It scares me for them, because of what God has sent or allowed me and others. But I know how it has all worked for good. And would I be a good father if I wanted my sons saved from anything which would make them saints? NO.

Most of us will not naturally discipline ourselves. So God must. And so he does, in his great mercy, not keeping adversity from us. What the Father sends or allows us, he shows us how to receive in his Son Jesus, and gives us his Son Jesus to walk through it and work through it with us.

An early Christian wrote his Hebrew brethren these words: "...The Lord disciplines him whom he loves ... For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

I want my sons to be strong, stalwart, heroic, fruitful. And I want to be with them in heaven forever. I pray that is what you want for your children. And I know this is what God wants for me, and for you. Therefore, he disciplines us ... he prunes us. God, you see, is the very good Father.

Back to the SERMONS page